A senior staffer familiar with conservative strategy said pro-gun rights senators Randall H. Paul (R.-Ky.) and Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.) plan to use the hearing to slow or defeat Murthy’s nomination in committee. Failing in committee, the two men will bring the fight to the Senate floor, hoping that their committee skirmish will be high-profile enough to alert both colleagues and advocates for restoring gun rights to the battle afoot.

The “nuclear option” helps the Paul-Enzi team’s effort.

Because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), with the approval of the GOP House leadership, eliminated the 60-vote threshold to end debate, Republicans, who used to assist Democrats on procedural votes can no longer vote to end debate, which was the salient vote, and then vote against the actual motion that only required a simple majority. With both votes a simple majority, there is no place to hide.

Republican leaders forge a governing coalition with the Obama White House, conservatives want the Murthy confirmation to be a referendum on gun rights as attention turns to the 2014 midterm elections.

Forced to defend 21 seats, with at least 10 of those seats competitive, the Democrats do not want to make anti-gun votes that would energize pro-gun voters. Typically, as an election gets closer, party discipline tightens, conservative fear that in the spirit of the new coalition with Obama, there may be Republican senators prepared to trade one-for-one with Democrats in trouble.

The Twitter feed of @vivek_murthy leaves no doubt eager the Obama nominee is to restrict gun rights:

In the days after the Dec. 14, 2012 spree-shooting in Newtown, Conn., Murthy posted an open letter to the president that urged restrictions on gun rights in the name of the medical profession.

According to the group’s website the letter is part of a larger campaign. “It’s time for common sense gun rules like background checks and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as a comprehensive plan to address gun violence including ensuring funding for research and data-collection on gun violence and ensuring that health care providers can ask patients about gun ownership in order to counsel them appropriately about safety measures.”

Using a common rhetorical construct of Obama’s, it dismisses discussion or the give-and-take of debate: “The complexity of gun violence and politics of gun safety laws can no longer be excuses for our elected leaders to avoid taking action to curb gun violence.”

As the Surgeon General and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service, Murthy would not only be in a position to use public funds to promote gun control schemes, he would also be able to open up another front in the Left’s war on gun rights by leveraging the doctor-patient relationship to attack gun violence as a public health crisis.

On the 2013 anniversary of the Newtown tragedy, Dr. Nina Agrawal, the coordinator of the DFA Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wrote on the group’s blog: “Gun violence is an urgent public health crisis and as physicians on the frontlines of health care delivery it is our obligation to take action to keep children and families safe by talking with our patients about guns.”

The Left is not shy about manipulating research in pursuit of its agenda. Think about the studies predicting the Global Warming we are experiencing this balmy winter.

One cannot imagine the “research” about gun ownership the Murthy-led Public Health Service will produce.

What Murthy is also advocating is incorporating doctors and other medical professionals into the political fight to disarm Americans, just as medical professionals are more and more dependent on government funding, favors and sanctions.

The Senate has a constitutional duty to advise and consent to presidential nominations and determine if Murthy is fit for the job.

Murthy is academically qualified for the job by virtue of his experience. But, conservatives are convinced disqualified himself, because of his overt activism and the likelihood that he will use his federal government position to fight against rights protected by the Second Amendment.

Neil W. McCabe is the editor of HE's "Guns & Patriots" e-letter and was a senior reporter at the Human Events newspaper. McCabe deployed with the Army Reserve to Iraq for 15 months as a combat historian. For many years, he was a reporter and photographer for "The Pilot," Boston's Catholic paper. He was also the editor of the free community papers "The Somerville (Mass.) News and "The Alewife (North Cambridge, Mass.)." Email him: [email protected] Follow him on Twitter: @neilwmccabe.